Inconsistencies Between Your Resume and LinkedIn

Your resume and LinkedIn are your core marketing assets when it comes to applying to a new position. Other than what you’ve shared in your cover letter and, if you’re lucky, what an internal advocate has said about you, your resume and LinkedIn represent all of the information a reader may know about you. So, it is incredibly important that these assets are top notch – compelling, achievement-focused, and consistent.

I understand that it is difficult to create compelling and achievement-focused resumes and LinkedIn profiles; it’s why I have a thriving business. But keeping your resume and LinkedIn in synch should be fairly easy. However, inconsistencies between the two show up every day in the work I do. Here is why that is such a bad thing:

To the above point, you presented a small amount of information by which a reader is to judge your fitness for a position. If the small amount of information you are presenting is inconsistent – job titles don’t match up, dates for the same position differ, degrees don’t align – that person is left to think that you are either lying or sloppy.

I believe that many professionals fill out their LinkedIn once and perhaps update it sporadically. Independent of those updates, they make adjustments to their resume. This leads to differing information between the two. Totally understandable and totally avoidable.

Here is a simple fix: when you update your resume, update your LinkedIn (and vice versa). That way you know the two will always be in alignment.

Remember your resume and LinkedIn don’t have to be exactly the same, but they have to be 100% consistent.